Stalactitic chalcedony geode (repaired)

Stalactitic chalcedony geode (repaired)Locale: Atlas Mountains, Morocco Approx dimensions: 4. 5 x 4 x 2" Approx weight: 377g **Repaired specimen These unusual geodes from Morocco are like small caves lined with stalactites, botryoidal forms, and swirling agate patterns. While commonly called red chalcedony, I find the color is more orange to red orange. Hematite causes this coloration, but later phases of growth (second generation) dont contain hematite inclusions. This creates a colorless

Locale: Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Approx dimensions: 4.5 x 4 x 2"

Approx weight: 377g

**Repaired specimen

These unusual geodes from Morocco are like small caves lined with stalactites, botryoidal forms, and swirling agate patterns. While commonly called red chalcedony, I find the color is more orange to red-orange. Hematite causes this coloration, but later phases of growth (“second generation”) don’t contain hematite inclusions. This creates a colorless-to-white growth over the orange chalcedony, which can produce a soft orange-cream druzy coating, or bold Halloween patterns of orange and white stripey stalactites.

This is a beautiful, large piece with fantastic Halloween colors of orange, dark brown, and white. Larger spires are interspersed with fine points of orange chalcedony. Since chalcedony and quartz are closely related you often see them grow together. They have the same chemical composition (silica) but different crystal structure (cryptocrystalline vs. crystalline). Specimens including this one feature lovely snowy white spheres of radial growth quartz. Colorless quartz also coats some stalactites creating a tutu of growth.

Where stalactites have broken you can see a pinpoint of a dark, metallic, mineral at the core, surrounded by orange chalcedony, then translucent white chalcedony.

This specimen has been inexpertly repaired from at least five pieces. The pieces were not reset evenly so cracks may be offset or have wide gaps in places. Glue is visible in several spots when studied closely. This is actually the specimen I used to demonstrate how to identify a repaired mineral. It may be flawed, but it's still one of my favorites due to the exquisite details!

UV reactivity well, the glue glows.

** Brittle warning! This material has the tendency to be crumbly, shedding pieces when handled. Limit handling and do not place stress on repair joints.

Repaired: This specimen has been repaired, meaning it broke but someone recompiled and glued it back together. These Moroccan geodes are frequently recompiled and glued together—but this is infrequently disclosed :( Read more about how to detect repairs.

I don't know how often breaks occur due to rough techniques in mining or cracking the geodes open, but I suspect many of the breaks are natural based on how few intact pieces I have ever seen. I have observed many of these geodes have a fairly thin, brittle crust which may make them susceptible to fracturing as part of normal geological processes. I have also seen examples where it appeared iron staining had leaked through the breaks, indicating the cracks occurred well before the specimen was mined.